Parents of infants need to wash their baby bottles daily and, at the same time, sanitize the bottle nipples and their collars. The inventor, a young mother, found this to be inconvenient and time-consuming using today's sanitizers. There are a number of sanitizers available. Many sanitizers are intended for heating on a kitchen range. The bottles, nipples and collars are placed inside a container having a water compartment. Steam generated by heating, cleanses the components in the sanitizer.
Frequently, stale water and particles are trapped in the nipples which have been turned upside down by the action of the water. This makes it necessary to repeat the cleansing process.
Some sensitizers are intended for use in a dishwasher. Such sanitizers have advantages in that no separate equipment standing on a range is needed, and the drying cycle of the dishwasher will dry the nipples and collars, eliminating hand drying. However, these `basket` type sanitizers have drawbacks, reducing their utility. In use, the nipples and collars are placed loosely in the basket. When the washing and drying cycles have finished, some nipples will have turned on a side or upside down, allowing stale water and particles to be trapped in the nipples. Sanitization will therefore be ineffective and unsatisfactory. Furthermore, a review of available `basket` type sanitizers shows that typically they are large and awkward fitting on either rack of dishwashers. In the inventor's experience, it is seldom necessary to sanitize more than four or five bottles and nipples a day for a baby. Therefore, a small basket holding four or five nipples and collars should be adequate. From the foregoing, it is clear there exists a need for a baby nipple sanitizer that will keep the nipples upright during cleansing, and can be stacked on any dishwasher rack.